After the bitter breakup of the Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney only played music together one more time—at an impromptu studio session in 1974, joined by Stevie Wonder.

Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles in a 1970 press release, surprising his bandmates.

Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3K to reunite on 'Saturday Night Live,' which John Lennon and Paul McCartney briefly considered.

The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows,' the final track from 1966's 'Revolver,' used innovative recording methods—including a rudimentary form of sampling—to redefine the sound of popular music.

A bootleg video of a 1966 conversation between Bob Dylan and John Lennon has long been a cryptic text for the artists' superfans.

Listen to 'Now and Then,' the Beatles' final song

The Beatles released their final song, "Now and Then," in October 2023, featuring a previously hidden John Lennon vocal. The track was initially shelved due to poor audio quality but was revived with the help of AI to enhance Lennon's performance....

Some people believe Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike.

The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, citing frustration with the era's limited sound systems.

An American Beatles album featured a bizarre, gruesome image of the band as butchers, which was swiftly recalled.

The Beatles loved Motown Records, covering some of the label's songs while honing their skills as a club act in Germany.

The Beatles were not an immediate success in the US—their label rejected their first two singles, and the band was mocked on the TV show 'American Bandstand.'

The BBC banned the Beatles' song 'A Day in the Life' for 5 years, fearing it encouraged drug use.

The American girl groups of the 1950s and '60s had a profound influence on The Beatles, who frequently paid homage to acts like the Marvelettes and the Ronettes

Explore Abbey Road Studios, the site that invented stereo recording and was the site of most of the Beatles' recordings.

Listen to "Yesterday and Today," the 1966 Beatles album only released in the US.

The Beatles' visit with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi helped inspire Western interest in Eastern spirituality

The Fab Four met with the guru—the creator of Transcendental Meditation—in 1968 in Rishikesh, India. The band's George Harrison and his wife had been interested in Indian culture for several years, but the meeting with Maharishi signified a meeting of Western popular culture with Eastern spirituality that would inspire the rising hippie movement.

The Beatles tried to get the rights to make a 'Lord of the Rings' film starring the band members as Gollum, Frodo, Gandalf, and Samwise.

In 'Cut Piece,' Yoko Ono invited the audience to her clothes

Much more than simply John Lennon’s partner, Yoko Ono is a prolific multimedia artist in her own right. Her 1964 performance "Cut Piece" invited audience members to come onstage and cut away pieces of her clothing. She described the piece as being about solidarity between women and the possibility for world peace, saying, “By not fighting, we show them that there's a whole world, which could exist by being peaceful.”

In 2004, Prince paid tribute to George Harrison with a surreal solo

The 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony paid tribute to the recently deceased Beatle with a rendition of one of his most famous songs by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, and George Harrison's son, Dhani. Several minutes into the performance, Prince suddenly appeared center stage for a virtuosic solo. He ended it by tossing his guitar into the crowd. Tom Petty's drummer would later say, "Everybody wonders where that guitar went, and I gotta tell you, I was on the stage, and I wonder where it went, too."

Hear how the Beatles became the most influential band on Earth, with guest Conan O'Brien.

The surgeon who tried to save John Lennon says he can’t forget that night

Frank Veteran was a resident in 1980 on the night John Lennon was shot in New York. For years afterward, he tried to process the sight of seeing the Beatle dying in the hospital, including through art, but he says that the memories from the experience are still vivid.

In the late '80s, Dylan formed the Traveling Wilburys with other rock legends

The word “supergroup” gets tossed around plenty in rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s never been more apt than with the Traveling Wilburys, a late '80s band featuring Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. At the time, Dylan was feeling creatively adrift and far removed from the passion of his earlier work. The winking alter-egos of the Wilburys reinvigorated him, leading to a great record and a renaissance in Dylan’s solo career.

Fifty backstage photos of musicians in the 1970s

Elton John, James Brown, Cher, Diana Ross, and many others all have famous photos seen multiple times on album covers, iconic images from events, and more. Rare is the unseen backstage photo of the greats, lounging or rocking out or, like Bo Diddley, frying up some chicken pre-show at the Garden. Peruse this incredible collection of candid shots of 1970s stars waiting in the wings to come on stage.

The cover of 'Abbey Road' was shot in a quiet London neighborhood in 1969

The unassuming setting became one of the most famous attractions in the city and was the cover of the Beatles' last-recorded album. It was shot in the late 1960s, when the Fab Four was the most famous band in the world.

How AI helped the Beatles win their eighth Grammy

It’s been decades since the legendary British rock band broke up, yet they still managed to snag a Grammy at the 2025 awards ceremony. This feat is thanks to AI, specifically machine-learning technology, to isolate and clean up different components of a late 1970s recording. This mini-documentary shows how the band's surviving members crafted “Now and Then” with the modern technology.

Bob Dylan wrote and recorded songs that later became hits when they were covered by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Adele, and Guns N' Roses.

Dolly Parton recorded two albums with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris under the name Trio.

Listen to the Beatles' 'Revolver,' the band's groundbreaking 1966 album.

Check out a list of the best Beatles songs, from 'Hey Jude' to 'A Day in the Life.'

The Beatles' labels released almost twice as many of the band's records in the US to capitalize on the band's popularity.

The Beatles' song 'Taxman' was inspired by Britain's tax structure.

In 1998, Billy Bragg and Wilco recorded unreleased songs penned by Woody Guthrie.

The Beatles sued technology company Apple in 1978 to defend naming rights to their record label, Apple Corps.

The Beatles' appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964 launched Beatlemania in the US after the band struggled to break through to American audiences.

Paul McCartney said the Beatles' 'Helter Skelter' was about a playground slide, but Charles Manson said it inspired him to orchestrate 9 murders.

Dylan's raucous 1976 tour was one piece of an ongoing reinvention

In the mid-70s, Dylan assembled a ragtag group of musicians and poets—including Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Allen Ginsberg—he called the Rolling Thunder Revue. Rather than playing stadiums in major markets, they played smaller venues in smaller cities for a more intimate experience. The tour yielded some of the most exuberant versions of Dylan songs, captured in this 1976 performance in Fort Collins, which originally aired on NBC as “Hard Rain.”

Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' revolutionized girl groups—and pop music

The method captured a room of live musicians and transmitted the sound into a basement outfitted with more speakers and microphones. That sound was then sent into the central control room, producing a massive recording that sounded unlike anything else in pop music.

Brian Wilson originally wrote the Beach Boys' classic 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

The 20-year feud between Elton John and Madonna

The two superstars feuded from roughly 2002 until 2025. After playing shows together in the 1990s, John took issue with Madonna's James Bond theme song "Die Another Day," calling it the worst of the film series. He kept up a stream of criticisms, and the feud peaked at the 2012 Golden Globes when Madonna beat out John for best original song. The pair reportedly reconciled backstage at "Saturday Night Live" in 2025.

Before they found fame as solo artists, Rick James and Neil Young both played in a band that was signed to Motown Records.

In 1984, Bob Dylan reimagined himself as the front man of a punk band for a performance on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

Broadway hit 'Stereophonic' was inspired by Fleetwood Mac

The show follows a 1970s rock band while they're in the studio, tracking a new album, and mirrors many of the internal conflicts that led to Fleetwood Mac's 1977 record, "Rumours." The play was a massive hit, earning 13 Tony nominations (the most ever for a play). It won five, including best play.

The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother' has the most famous break in music

"Amen, Brother," a once-forgotten track from gospel group the Winstons, became one of music's most sampled songs after a six-second snippet was featured on "Ultimate Break Beats."

Daniel Johnston's home recordings have inspired countless rock legends

The singer-songwriter self-released cassettes in the early '80s that were not fit for the radio—their sound quality was poor, and the songs were often little more than an organ and Johnston's high-pitched voice, singing about things like Casper the Friendly Ghost. The tapes eventually found their way to alternative tastemakers, who lauded the songs' brilliance and inspired a cult following that has admired Johnston's music for decades.

Listen to Woody Guthrie's 1940 concept album about agricultural and economic destruction, 'Dust Bowl Ballads.'

Watch a 1965 press conference with Bob Dylan where he mocks the media's focus on celebrity.

The Rolling Stones got their name from a Muddy Waters song.

Explore all 58 famous figures—including artists, thinkers, politicians, athletes, and other pop culture icons—portrayed on the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album cover.

Watch James Brown perform several songs in 1964 during one of rock 'n' roll's most legendary sets.

Paul Simon recorded his landmark album 'Graceland' in South Africa, in defiance of a UN-approved cultural boycott.

The Shaggs weren't good musicians, but they still made a classic

In 1969, the three sisters recorded "Philosophy of the World"; only 100 copies were publicly distributed. The record became a cult classic thanks to its strange backstory (their father forced them into playing music) and the band's amateurism. Critic Lester Bangs wrote, "They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock'n'roll's ever been about from day one."